We went to a Riesling tasting put together by a crew called the Neighborhood Tasting Society here in NY. Hosted by the manager at Nancy's Wines For Food, Evan Spingarn. On the whole these wines were great--elegant and quite complex. Almost none were straightforward. All were mouthwatering--high acid, low alcohol will do that. Here's my brief notes, which get less reliable as they go--limited access to the spit bucket.

--Joachim Flick 2002 (Rheingau): just off-dry (halbtrocken), great acid, well balanced. Comes in a liter bottle, great value, $11

--Kabinett 'Wehlener Sonnenuhr' Max Ferdinand Richter 2002 (Mosel): very popular with the crowd but they ran out before we got to it [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/frown.gif[/img] $15

--Kabinett 'Niersteiner' J.u.H.A. Strub 2002 (Rheinhessen): This turned out to be drier than our hosts expected, and so didn't fit in well at this end of the tasting. It seemed pretty acidic and 1-dimensional, grapefruity, but I can't judge it fairly. $14

Bringing some would be good SW. Then we could compare and contrast with the really wonderful Finger Lakes Rieslings. Our hosts, Glenora, make a very tasty dry Riesling, which is actually somewhat sweeter than what I would think of as dry.

Well, when I consider the prices on these great wines, it certainly does seem quite underrated generally. I guess the combination of being low alcohol, often sweet, and usually from Germany does it in from a mass market perspective.

Thanks for the notes. I'm familiar with many of the towns and districts if not the producers. I do have a Piesporter from Haart at home--I think a spatlese or auslese.
Have also sampled Strub Niersteiner wines and found them quite agreeable.